58 WESTMORLAND AGRICULTURE, 1800— 1900 



£ s. d. 



Draining, 6d. per foot deep per rood of 7 yards, 3 feet deep 



IS. 6d. per foot. Half an acre 7 yards apart . . . . 314 3 



Cost of tiles, 2-inch, and carting .. .. .. ..1126 



Proportion of main drain .. .. .. .. ..076 



Liming 60 bushels at is. per bushel . . . . . . ..300 



Carting and spreading . . . . . . . . . . . . i 10 o 



Ploughing, 3 men and 2 horses at 3s. 6d. per day each, 17s. 6d. 



per day 2 12 6 



Fencing, 6s. 6d. per rood building and 6s. 6d. carting stones 



from field .. .. .. .. .. .. ..420 



£i(> 18 9 



On such land the cropping pursued was first to sow oats in the 

 latter part of March 14 stones to the acre at is. 4d. per stone the crop 

 being worth £6 los. In the following spring swede turnips were 

 sown in ridges, in the beginning of May manured with 8 cwt. of super- 

 phosphate £3 4s. and 2 cwt. of Peruvian Guano £1 6s. The value 

 of the turnips, one-half of which to be eaten on the land with sheep, 

 was £xo IDS. In the following spring the land was sown down for 

 permanent pasture, a crop of oats being taken at the same time, the 

 seeds used being 10 lb. Perennial Rye Grass, 5 lbs. Timothy, 2\ lbs. 

 Cow Grass, i lb. Alsyke, and 2 lbs. of Hard Fescue. Another course 

 of cropping which was frequently followed on similar land was : 

 (i) potatoes ; (2) turnips eaten on the ground ; (3) seeds or seeds and 

 oats ; afterwards to come under the ordinary rotation of the farm. 



On the purely peat or raw moss land in the Levens district in 

 the early years of the century a kind of drain very often used was 

 made by cutting a trench 3 feet deep 15 inches wide at the top and 

 6 inches at the bottom and filling it half full of thorns and brushwood, 

 placing a thin green sod above them to prevent small pieces of peat 

 from getting down among them. It was a cheap form of draining 

 for this class of land which answered its purpose well for a few years. 

 The most common form of drains used, however, on newly-made moss 

 land was the " spete " drain. A trench 2 feet deep was first dug, 

 then with a tool called a " square mouth " a sod 7 or 8 inches wide 

 at the underside and a little wider at the top was taken out and care- 

 fully laid on one side. Another tool was then used called the " long 



